10 Tips to Create a Sales Focused Contact Centre
Are you struggling to turn your contact centre into a sales focused area? One of my clients recently had the same challenge.
This electronic supply company's contact centre was originally focused on customer service only. Since contact centres require a large staff, work stations, and expensive call routing equipment, their department was viewed as a "cost centre" by senior management. In other words, they were a drain on the company's budget.
So, they decided to transition to a more sales focused role. They asked Agents to suggest additional products to customers. They trained their Agents to "up-sell" new services during inbound calls.
And it worked! By generating add-on sales, the contact centre became a area that made money, instead of being an expense.
If you want to make this transition, here are 10 steps to create a sales focused inbound contact centre:
1) Have a good Service Level:
You must take care of the customer’s initial inquiry in a timely fashion to earn the right to up sell. If you can't take care of the initial enquiry fast enough, you shouldn't be trying to further dampen service levels by attempting to up sell.
2) Change the contact centre culture from a "service" mind set to a "service and sales" mind set:
Often, Agents can be resistant to change. As one Agent said to me, "I'm a service person, not one of those ‘sales people.’" It’s crucial to transition the contact centre’s culture to a sales mind set to reach full potential.
3) Update your hiring practices:
In your recruitment and in your interviews, find people who are service AND sales focused.
4) Train your Agents on HOW to sell:
Sales people aren't born, they are trained. Your Agents deserve to be properly trained on contact centre sales skills so they can succeed.
5) Train your Team Managers on HOW to SALES coach and give them the time to do it:
Contact cenrre sales coaching is different from call quality coaching and your Team Managers deserve to be trained on the new skills required in a sales and service team. Coaching must be a priority to reinforce the sales culture.
6) Set clear sales targets and communicate them to the Agents:
Don't just do it once in a meeting, reinforce it daily or weekly at rallies, team huddles, and performance appraisals.
7) Have a balance between call quality and sales results:
Good sales calls are efficient calls because a well-trained Agent knows how to ask questions, listen for answers and close effectively.
8) Measure and update each Agent on their results:
Give them a goal to aim for and let them frequently know how they are progressing. What gets measured, gets done.
9) Show how call center sales targets affect the "big picture":
Let your Agents and Team Managers know WHY sales are important and how they help the bottom line. Educate them about your business. You'd be surprised how hard people will work if they know they are making a difference.
10) Reward individual and team success:
Have contests, give out prizes, do team rallies and reward days. Change your compensation or bonus structure to reward top performers and encourage further sales success.
Copyright © 2006 Reflective Keynotes Inc., Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
This electronic supply company's contact centre was originally focused on customer service only. Since contact centres require a large staff, work stations, and expensive call routing equipment, their department was viewed as a "cost centre" by senior management. In other words, they were a drain on the company's budget.
So, they decided to transition to a more sales focused role. They asked Agents to suggest additional products to customers. They trained their Agents to "up-sell" new services during inbound calls.
And it worked! By generating add-on sales, the contact centre became a area that made money, instead of being an expense.
If you want to make this transition, here are 10 steps to create a sales focused inbound contact centre:
1) Have a good Service Level:
You must take care of the customer’s initial inquiry in a timely fashion to earn the right to up sell. If you can't take care of the initial enquiry fast enough, you shouldn't be trying to further dampen service levels by attempting to up sell.
2) Change the contact centre culture from a "service" mind set to a "service and sales" mind set:
Often, Agents can be resistant to change. As one Agent said to me, "I'm a service person, not one of those ‘sales people.’" It’s crucial to transition the contact centre’s culture to a sales mind set to reach full potential.
3) Update your hiring practices:
In your recruitment and in your interviews, find people who are service AND sales focused.
4) Train your Agents on HOW to sell:
Sales people aren't born, they are trained. Your Agents deserve to be properly trained on contact centre sales skills so they can succeed.
5) Train your Team Managers on HOW to SALES coach and give them the time to do it:
Contact cenrre sales coaching is different from call quality coaching and your Team Managers deserve to be trained on the new skills required in a sales and service team. Coaching must be a priority to reinforce the sales culture.
6) Set clear sales targets and communicate them to the Agents:
Don't just do it once in a meeting, reinforce it daily or weekly at rallies, team huddles, and performance appraisals.
7) Have a balance between call quality and sales results:
Good sales calls are efficient calls because a well-trained Agent knows how to ask questions, listen for answers and close effectively.
8) Measure and update each Agent on their results:
Give them a goal to aim for and let them frequently know how they are progressing. What gets measured, gets done.
9) Show how call center sales targets affect the "big picture":
Let your Agents and Team Managers know WHY sales are important and how they help the bottom line. Educate them about your business. You'd be surprised how hard people will work if they know they are making a difference.
10) Reward individual and team success:
Have contests, give out prizes, do team rallies and reward days. Change your compensation or bonus structure to reward top performers and encourage further sales success.
Copyright © 2006 Reflective Keynotes Inc., Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
About the Author:
Mike Aoki is the President of Reflective Keynotes Inc. (www.reflectivekeynotes.com ), a Canadian training company that helps contact centres improve their sales, customer service and coaching skills. He serves on the Advisory Council of GTACC (the Greater Toronto Area Contact Centre association www.gtacc.ca ) and was Master of Ceremonies for five of their annual conferences. He has been interviewed by the Customer Experience Show and the Globe and Mail. He was also chosen by ICMI.com as one of the “Top 50 Customer Service Thought Leaders on Twitter” for the past three years in a row.
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